Ski lifts are the easy route an increasing number of visitors on mountain bikes are using to head uphill in the summertime. Bicyclists just hitch their mountain bike (or a rented one) to a special rack on the lift for the ride to the summit. Once there, they have their choice of routes leading around the peak or riding down the summer-green slopes.
And the Lifts are Where?
More than a dozen ski-turned-summer resort towns in the U.S. and Canada are using this lure to attract visitors. Winter Park Resort in Colorado, for example, bills itself as Mountain Bike Capital USA. With miles of trails off the Zephyr Express Chairlift and more than 600 miles of interconnected trails in the area, there’s some legitimacy to this claim. But, Crested Butte Resort, down in southwestern Colorado, might argue otherwise. Long considered a biking Mecca by fat-tire devotees, there are many miles of lift-accessed bike trails and routes threading the national forests in the region.
At Mammoth Mountain, California, a gondola takes you and your bike up to the 11,053-foot-high summit, where there’s a trail system with choices for all skill levels. You can wend your way down via snowcat trails, plummet downhill on one of trails that are black-rated in the winter, or pedal between the pines.
Europe Has Life-Served Bike Trails, Too
Pack up your mountain bike and head to Switzerland. Ski Morzine becomes Bike Morzine when the snow melts in the Alps. In Zermatt you can load your mountain bike on the highest cog railway in the world and cruise level with some peaks after getting off the train at Gornergrat.
Go ahead. It’s okay to use lift-served access to mountain bike routes as a starting point. You can still wear yourself out on the trails leading away from the top of the lift.
